#John Legend, Lynn Nottage, Liesl Tommy Team Up on Development of ‘Imitation of Life’ Musical

John Legend is writing the score to a stage adaptation of the 1959 film Imitation of Life.

The musical, which is in development and aiming for Broadway, features a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined) and direction by Liesl Tommy, who directed Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed on Broadway. The production held a private industry reading at the end of April.

Universal Theatrical Group and Get Lifted Film Co, a production company led by Legend, as well as producer Mike Jackson and Friends at Work CEO Ty Stiklorius, are producing the musical. 

Imitation of Life, which originated as a 1933 novel written by Fannie Hurst, follows Delilah Johnston, a Black woman and mother living in Atlantic City in the 1920s with her daughter Peola, who passes as white. Johnston forms a friendship and business partnership with Bea Pullman, a white woman who is a widower, and must navigate the racial and economic tensions that come with starting a business, as well as Peola’s own career aspirations.

Universal Pictures adapted the novel into a 1934 film adaptation, starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers, which was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture, as well as a 1959 film, starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, which was nominated for two acting Academy Awards. 

Tommy, who recently directed the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect starring Jennifer Hudson, said she chose this project because she felt that it was “uniquely suited to musical theater.”

“When I met with Universal Theatrical Group to talk about a possible collaboration, the only title I wanted to discuss was Imitation of Life. I’d long been a fan of the book and I knew there was a passionate, contemporary, and newly relevant adaptation of this story uniquely suited to musical theater. To my mind the only collaborators for this beautifully complex, wholly American story are Lynn Nottage and John Legend; thankfully, they agreed to join me immediately in bringing their creativity and immense talents to this re-telling. We are thrilled to partner with UTG as we turn a whole new lens on Imitation of Life, using this great American art form to illuminate and uplift Black life,” Tommy said.

While better known for his solo music career, Legend has had some prior Broadway experience, after writing a song for the SpongeBob SquarePants musical on Broadway and acting as a producer on August Wilson’s Jitney and Ain’t Too Proud.